Impeachment: A Primer

The possibilities hinge on what's in Starr's report

By Dave Kenney/AllPolitics

As Independent Counsel Ken Starr wraps up his investigation of President Bill Clinton, speculation is building
about what might happen next. If Starr presents a final report to Congress, the possibility of impeachment will become difficult to ignore.

The independent counsel law requires Starr to report to the House of Representatives any "substantial and
credible information" that "may constitute grounds for an impeachment." Starr indicated in a Supreme Court
brief in May that an impeachment report to Congress was a real possibility. | U.S. House of Representatives Internet Law Library

Beyond that, it gets more murky.

No independent counsel has ever presented an impeachment report to Congress and it is not clear what would
happen next if Starr produced one.

An influential senior GOP leadership aide told CNN that if Starr submits a
report this year, the House will appoint a bipartisan group of lawmakers to review it and decide whether to
send it to the House Judiciary Committee and its chairman, Henry Hyde. Hyde has indicated in the past that he
opposes the creation of such a special committee. | Rep. Hyde's Web site

If the Judiciary Committee did institute impeachment hearings, it would then have to decide what constitutes an
impeachable offense. The Constitution says a president can be removed from office if he committed "treason,
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." It does not, however, provide any guidance as to what "high
crimes and misdemeanors" are or what the burden of proof might be.

If hearings were held, they could result in an impeachment resolution and accompanying articles of
impeachment that would then go to the full House. It's at this point that the Constitution and history begin
providing a clearer roadmap of the impeachment process. | Searchable U.S. Constitution Web site

A formal accusation

Impeachment is the act of formally accusing a public official of crimes or serious misconduct. Under the
Constitution, the power to impeach lies with the House of Representatives. The Senate conducts any trial that
might result from an impeachment.

An official found guilty of impeachable offenses is subject to removal from office and disqualification from
holding other federal posts.

Over the years, the House has issued articles of impeachment against 15 federal officials [complete list], 14 of whom went to
trial in the Senate. In seven of those cases, the Senate voted to convict.

No president has ever been convicted in an impeachment trial, but two have come close.

Andrew Johnson's Close Call

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson took the oath of office as president on April 15, 1865, following the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln. His tenure at the White House was troubled almost from the beginning. When Johnson tried
to force out Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in 1867 for conspiring with his political enemies, radical Republicans
began moving for impeachment.

Their first attempt, in December 1867, failed, but on Feb. 24, 1868, they succeeded. The House passed a
resolution of impeachment and followed that up by issuing 11 articles detailing the charges against the
president. Foremost among them was the largely political charge that Johnson had violated the recently-passed
Tenure of Service Act in the Stanton affair.

The Senate trial opened on March 5, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. It lasted three weeks.
Johnson never appeared. In the end, the Senate court came close to convicting him on three of the charges, but
in each case fell one vote short of the required two-thirds majority.

The fall of Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon announces his resignation

By the fall of 1973, the Watergate scandal was crippling the Nixon White House and calls for the president's
impeachment were becoming increasingly common. Nixon had raised public suspicions by firing special
prosecutor Archibald Cox and many Americans were beginning to believe that the president was personally
involved in a coverup of the 1972 Watergate break-in. The House of Representatives responded by telling the
Judiciary Committee to open an impeachment investigation.

The Judiciary Committee completed its investigation in the summer of 1974. In late July it adopted three
articles of impeachment against Nixon. The first article, which related to the Watergate break-in, charged the president with obstruction of justice.

Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, before the full House could vote on impeachment and before the Senate had
a chance to take any action. His successor, Gerald Ford, later pardoned Nixon for any and all crimes he may
have committed in office, removing the possibility that the former president would face a criminal trial.